Missing Church

It's been nearly a month since I've been to church. Every Sunday, either the kids are sick or I am. I'm so ready for all of this illness to leave our home. I've been working hard on getting things cleaner, but I don't know if it's doing much good. I just really want to be well enough to go to church next Sunday.

Crazy, Sick Kids

It has been a crazy month for our family health-wise. Mitchell had to take Joseph to the ER at the beginning of the month while I was out of town, and Joseph had some pretty bad bronchitis. He had to take antibiotics, use an inhaler and a nebulizer, and it was all pretty crazy. He is still coughing regularly, so we have to use the inhaler sometimes before school.

Annabelle and Mitchell had the same respiratory infection that started Joseph's bronchitis. And Charlie and I caught it once we were back in town. There was lots of coughing and a bit of misery for the first part of the month. Charlie is still coughing pretty badly and I'm still coughing a bit.

On Thursday, I noticed Charlie's eye looked pink and there was a lot of goop in the corners. Annabelle's 4 year well-check was the next morning, so I just had him seen at the same time. The doctor checked his lungs and his eye, but he seemed to be just fine.

Friday evening, while I was making dinner, Charlie threw up all over the little, neighbor girl, Janina, while she was playing at our house. I stripped him down and took his temperature, but he was asleep before I even finished. His temp was just around 100 degrees, so I didn't think it was a big deal. He slept on my bed for about an hour and a half. When he woke up, he was burning up, so I took his temp again and it had risen to 102.5 degrees. He seemed pretty lethargic and delirious, so I was initially very worried. I was about to take him to the ER, but I felt like I should clean him up first and try to cool him down a bit. We spent about 40 minutes in the shower, just sitting in the water, until we ran out of hot water. I kept asking him if he wanted to get out and lay in the bed, but he would just say, "uh-uh." He just laid in my lap with his eyes closed and swished his hand in the water. When we were finally out of hot water, I got him out, dried him off, and dressed him. And his fever was WAY down. He was also talking to me normally, telling me he was hungry and asking for drinks. He had apple juice and watched PBS with the kids until really late. Annabelle came into the room crying shortly after the shower because her ear was hurting. I gave her ibuprofen and a heating pad to rest on. Sometime while watching PBS, and I was washing the dishes from dinner, Charlie threw up just a little bit on the floor next to my bed. But by the time Mitchell got home from work, around 10:30, Charlie was jumping on the bed and playing as if nothing had happened. He slept on the floor next to me that night, and kept me up with his coughing. I kept thinking he was going to throw up again, but he just had so much drainage running down his throat that he was trying to cough up. He didn't even wake up for any of his coughing fits!

I had planned on taking the kids to Boo at the Zoo Saturday morning, but after the evening's ordeal, I figured that wasn't a good idea. But then all the kids seemed just fine! They played and did all their normal stuff. I figured they were all feeling better, so I started trying to get everything ready for church the next day. I let Charlie sleep next to me again, and he was coughing most of the night again. Joseph was also coughing a lot during the night, and Annabelle needed more ibuprofen for her ear.

By morning, I just felt like I should give them a little longer to get better, so Mitchell went to church without us. When Charlie got up, I noticed a patch of red bug bites on his ankle. I figured he'd rolled on a spider or something on my floor because our house is full of bugs. When Annabelle woke up, we noticed one of her eyes was pink looking. And she had a runny nose and cough. When I went to change Charlie's diaper, I found patches of the "bug bites" all over his body, and that's when I realized they were hives. He had them all over and was scratching a lot, so I gave him some Benadryl. He was also getting warm again, so Mitchell had me give him some Tylenol. About 2 hours after the Tylenol, his temp was around 100.2 degrees, so I wonder what it would have been if we hadn't given him the Tylenol. The rest of the day went fine, but at bedtime, Joseph kept saying he was itchy. I checked and he was covered with patches of hives, too! I gave him Benadryl before bed, and Annabelle needed ibuprofen again.

This morning, Joseph's hives were gone, but Charlie still had his and Annabelle had some. At 9 am, I called the doctor's office and made an appointment for all three of them. I was worried about Joseph being contagious because of the hives/rash being on all three kids, so I had him pulled out of class to wait in the nurse's office until I could get there.

They were extremely ill-behaved at the doctor's office. I couldn't believe how rowdy, loud, and disrespectful they were being! I spent the whole appointment trying to keep them under control (and failing) while trying to answer all the doctor's and nurse's questions. After looking at them, the doctor told me they all had ear infections, and Joseph had fluid in BOTH of his ears. That would also explain a lot of the other stuff going on. It's possible to get hives from viruses, so we are thinking that is what is causing their hives. They are going to all be on antibiotics, plus we are getting eye drops for the pink eye. I was instructed to continue with the inhaler for Joseph as needed, and to use Benadryl for the hives, as needed.

Right now, Joseph and Charlie are playing out on the front porch --it's 85 degrees today!-- and Annabelle is sleeping after a dose of Benadryl. I just wish all three of them were sleeping so that I could, too! The past few days have been exhausting!

The Good and Bad.

The last few days have been pretty crazy. Last week, I had some kind of virus. I'm pretty sure it was the flu because of the severity of the symptoms and how quickly it went away, but Mitchell says it was a cold. Pretty much everyone else got it, but I had it the worst. And then I threw out my back on Sunday morning, and it's been slowly healing since then. So I've been barely doing the minimum requirements to get my family by.

The best things that have happened were being brought groceries from ward members both yesterday and today. We've also received clothes and a gift card. It has been so amazing how much help we have been receiving from our amazing ward. We also FINALLY got our food stamps card in the mail. And we got an Amazon gift card from our credit card rewards that we are using to get some of those more expensive home supplies like A/C filters and printer ink.

So I guess the point of this all is that there are always great blessings even when it seems like things suck.

Oh, and it was Mitchell's 30th birthday last week. It was fun!

Too Much On My Plate

Today was a hard day for me. I feel like I just have a lot going on right now.

The "Bad" Things:

I didn't here back about the job at Veritas, Inc.

We bug bombed our kitchen yesterday, but the infestation is so bad that we have to do it again tomorrow.

I haven't had any use of my kitchen for about 36 hours, so we've had to eat out a lot even though we're completely broke.

We don't know how we're going to pay our rent for September, but we can't move anywhere else because we can't pay a deposit. 

I think I have a UTI. 

I'm having my period for the second time in 2 weeks because I had to stop my birth control pills prematurely; they were making me feel "morning sick" all the time.

The "Good" Things:

I had a job interview at a different PetSmart. They seemed really interested in me.

Joseph is starting Kindergarten tomorrow! And we have all his stuff ready for him.

We've been the recipients of many charitable acts over the past month.

Our landlord is providing all the supplies to take care of our roach problem.

I'm hoping and praying really hard that everything evens out soon.

Neck Pain

A bit after waking up this morning, my neck started feeling stiff. Within an hour of that, I couldn't turn my head. Eventually, it got to the point where I couldn't move my back or anything. We've been using Deep Blue with massage, heating packs, and ibuprofen, but I spent pretty much the whole day in bed. I'm just trying to find different positions to alleviate the pain. It seems to be stemming from the 7th vertebra, at least that's what Mitchell said. He was massing my back and neck, but when he touched there it was intense pain. I'm hoping that my day of rest helps it heal so that I can be more productive tomorrow.

A Mostly Good Day

It's so late! So I'm going to do a pretty short post tonight. 

The Downside:

I was feeling sick today, but it's the kind that's a limbo between mostly healthy and really sick. It just made me even more tired, sometimes I would get dizzy, and my throat is still sore and scratchy.

The Fun:

The kids went to bed without a fuss, so Mitchell and I were able to watch Secondhand Lions, which I had  never seen before. I really enjoyed the movie, and it was a nice boost.

The Work: 

With the help of the kids, I got the living room, dining room, and front hall straightened and vacuumed. They didn't stay completely clean, but they aren't too messy either.

A Silly Story:

I think Annabelle may be getting sick as well because she has been extra moody the past couple days. This story is evidence:

In order to get the kids to help me clean, I turned it into a game. The kids had eaten graham crackers in the room and there were crumbs everywhere, so I told them the crumbs were Kryptonite. And they would turn the whole room into Kryptonite if we didn't clean them up before the timer went off. So we got busy cleaning. When we were nearly to the point of vacuuming, Annabelle walked in with graham crackers in her hand and sat down to eat them. In my mock distressed voice I said, "Oh, no! Annabelle that's Kryptonite!" And then she burst into tears and just started sobbing. I apologized for upsetting her and had her go to the kitchen with her graham crackers, where she continued to making blubbering sounds for about 10-15 minutes. Eventually she joined back in the game as if nothing had ever happened.

                                  

This was Joseph's favorite picture of the day because it was him as Superman when we were cleaning.

Doctor Visit and Medicine Troubles

The Frustrations:

Since we moved to Georgia, I've been getting my Cymbalta from my FIL. He's cleaned out his office's samples for me over the past few months. When I tried to fill my prescription last month, the pharmacy told me that my insurance wouldn't be effective until May. So I finally went to fill it again today. And now there is no record of me in the company's system at all. We are paying $500 a month for nothing! All of this insurance crap is just so frustrating to me. Why does being an adult have to be so complicated? I'll be giving the consultant a call tomorrow to straighten everything out. 

Also, I'm pretty sure I'm getting a cold. Charlie was sick yesterday and today, and I think he gave it to me. My throat has been scratchy and sore, and I'm aching more than usual. I don't want to be sick! 

The Blessings:

Earlier in the month, I received a doTERRA order that I had placed, but one of the items was the wrong thing. I didn't call right away because my MIL was visiting and I didn't want to take time away from her. Then I just kept forgetting to call. So I finally called today. I was worried they wouldn't be able to help me because it's been almost 3 weeks since the order processed, but they were. They are sending me the correct item tomorrow, and I get to keep the other item free of charge! And it's a bottle of an essential oil blend that I use regularly that's worth $15! That was some really good news.

This second one is difficult to think of... I think it's a blessing that I was much more patient with my kids than usual. I only got frustrated with them a couple times, after they were just completely ignoring everything I was saying.

The Accomplishment:

I went to a doctor appointment today, with all three kids in tow. I stayed pretty patient with them, dispute them being pretty wild, but I just worked really hard to reign them in without yelling. At the appointment, they drew blood to test my thyroid levels, kidney & liver functions, and iron levels. They are also starting me on Wellbutrin, once the insurance lets me pick up my prescriptions... Anyway, it feels good to be on the oath to better health.

I made it the whole day without playing any video games. To put this in perspective, I've been playing games every day for at least an hour a day lately. Yesterday, I played almost the whole day and barely even stopped for meals.

Blogging Failure

I'm starting to think I just fail at blogging and maybe I should give up on it. I usually can't think of things to blog about, but when I do, I can't find the time to do it.

We've been sick for a week now. Hopefully, we'll be getting better soon. Being sick really messes everything up.

I just don't know if I should keep this blog up or not.

Hand, Foot, and Mouth

On a Thursday, couple weeks ago, Annabelle got a funny rash that spread from her diaper area to the rest of her body. I decided to take her in to the doctor the next morning.

That morning, she had a very low fever and Joseph suddenly had one that was a bit higher. So I took them both in. While waiting for our turn with the doctor, Joseph threw up. After being examined, the doctor felt for sure that this was strep throat. He could see sore spots in their mouths and Annabelle's rash looks like the one that comes with Scarlet Fever, although he didn't think she had that. He did rapid strep tests on them both (Joseph threw up again because of his) and those were negative. So he sent us home and told us they would do cultures to re-check.

On Saturday morning, Joseph seemed entirely better. Annabelle seemed to be doing better as well; her rash was almost gone, too. We just figured it was a quick virus and we were glad because we didn't want to miss church.

On Sunday, we let them sleep in and only went for the last hour of church, which is Sacrament Meeting for us. They seemed like they were doing way better, so we also went to the ward Father's Day barbecue. However, after the barbecue, I found blisters all over Annabelle's diaper area. And you could tell they were hurting her a lot. This seemed really weird to me, so I called and talked to the on-call nurse at the doctor's office. She told us that Annabelle had Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease! When I got off the phone, I looked at Annabelle's hands and feet and saw little red spots on them. Then I checked Joseph and found the same thing, but he seemed to have more. As the evening progressed, we noticed the kids scratching a lot, so we put hydrocortisone and socks on their hands and feet. They looked pretty cute with sock hands.

The next day, Joseph's spots seemed mostly better. A few had blistered, but most had just disappeared. But Annabelle was an entirely different case. Her hands and feet were covered in blisters and the blisters were spreading up her legs and on her arms. She also had a pretty high fever and was just completely miserable that whole day. So in the evening we took her to the doctor. She met with a PA first, who said that she looked like some really bad cases of HFM that he had seen. But he wanted to get a second opinion just in case, so he brought the doctor in (a different one than the one that diagnosed strep). This doctor took a look at her and determined it was a herpetic virus, similar to the one that causes cold sores. He explained that sometimes kids will get the virus from someone who has a cold sore and, instead of just getting a cold sore, the virus breaks out on their whole body. They prescribed an anti-viral to stop the reproduction of the virus so that she wouldn't get any more blisters.

Annabelle decided with this illness that she hates taking medicine (she used to take it like candy), so we battled over tylenol and benadryl a lot over that week. Luckily, we could put the antiviral in her milk and she couldn't tell the difference (she had to take it 4 times a day for 3 days). She stopped getting spots and the ones she had started to heal. She finally seemed to be doing better.

However, a few days ago, she started a process of peeling that I thought was a part of HFM, so I really have no idea what she had. Her hands and feet are peeling where ever there were blisters; Joseph's are doing the same. But since the ENTIRE bottom of her feet were cover in blisters she is losing all of the skin there. We've had to hold her down every evening so that we can clip some of the dead skin off so that it doesn't catch and pull on things. She hates it, but it seems like the process is almost over. I finally found my camera a couple days ago, so I was able to get some pictures of her poor little feet.

This foot still has most of the dead skin on it, only the toes had been peeled so far.

This foot had peeled the entire bottom off. It's all red and wrinkly and feels just like a newborn babies foot. She also has a band-aid on her second toe where she lost the toe nail. :(

This is just a comparison of the two feet together. Since the picture was taken, almost all of the left foot has peeled as well.

This is a side view. You can sort of see where the old skin is and the new skin starts.

The peeling process seems to be almost over, but her feet and hands are very tender and she doesn't like them getting wet or being touched a lot. She walks on her tiptoes a lot because she doesn't like how her feet feel on the ground, but she doesn't like wearing shoes either. I'm just glad that the process is almost over and that she is finally getting back to normal.

Hives

Yesterday afternoon, after eating some delicious pumpkin pie at the birthday party of one of Annabelle's friends, I broke out into hives. At first I just thought I had an itchy back, but then it spread to my arms, shoulders, and the back of my neck. I haven't itched that bad in a very long time, not since I was having allergy tests and stuff done. We have no idea if it was something in the pie that caused it or if it was something else. I spent all of yesterday evening in bed either sleeping or almost sleeping because of the Benadryl that I had to take to keep the itching under control. We also didn't go to church this morning because the hives were still bad enough that I couldn't have anything touching my back. It was probably around 10 or 11 this morning that I was finally able to have my shirt down and touching my lower back. I still itch a little bit, but it is nothing compared to what it was yesterday. It will probably always be a mystery as to what actually caused the break out...

A House Full of Sickies

We have been a house full of sickies for the past 2 weeks. It has not been very fun, but it could have been much worse.

It started with Annabelle acting cranky around the weekend of General Conference; she even threw up twice. A few days later, we noticed her eyes were all pink and goopy. We took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with bacterial conjuctivitis (Pink Eye) and an ear infection. We picked up her antibiotics and started her on them; she has 2 more days left of those.

Then Mitchell got a sore throat, and then a stuffy nose and a cough, all of it causing him to miss 2 days of class. Then he woke up with an ear infection. He went to the doctor and got some antibiotics. Two days later, he got Pink Eye, so he missed another day of class. He's still in the difficult process of catching up on his many art projects for his classes.

And I got sick, too, of course. I got the sore throat, the stuffy nose, the cough and the ear infection, plus the Pink Eye. I missed 3 days of class because of it. My ear is still plugged and my voice is just getting back to normal (I nearly lost it for a couple days). My mid-terms with this week, and I felt so far behind. Thanks to some quick studying and, especially, some answered prayers, I ended up getting good grades on both exams! It feels great to be done with the first block and starting fresh with the second.

Joseph has managed to get away without getting sick at all. He just had to be kept inside and bored because no one could take him out to play. He's happier now that he can play outside.

New Start

The Blogger application that I had for my phone ended up being defective and I had to delete it. So, I will try to blog before I go to bed at night.

The last few days have been pretty crazy. We spend Friday exploring the BYU campus with my mom, Marty, and Jason. It was really fun. Yesterday, we went to the zoo. My allergies were really bad and just kept getting worse as the day progressed. Although I enjoyed being with my family, I was pretty miserable the whole day. When I woke up this morning, my allergies had settled into sinusitis. We didn't go to church because Joseph and Annabelle both had runny noses, too. I know Annabelle suffers from allergies, but I'm not sure about Joseph. I slept and rested most of the day. I need to conserve my energy for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the big day! I start college! I had to change my classes to fit around Mitchell's schedule, so I'm taking Writing 150, which is basic college writing, and Principles of Statistics. I am so scared, but also so excited. I have no idea what this is going be like. I know that we will find a way to make it work, but I know that it is going to be hard. I am going to have Mitchell give me a blessing before I go to sleep. I'm going to try to go to bed early tonight because I need to wake up at 6 in the morning. I don't know if I'm really ready for this, but here goes...

Sickness

I tired posting this a couple days ago and apparently it didn't work...

We just got over being sick at our house. Joseph got sick Tuesday and continued to be sick until Saturday. Annabelle and I were only sick on Saturday. We had a very unpleasant stomach virus and I felt like I spent most of Saturday cleaning up after it. We started home from church yesterday to make sure that we weren't sick any longer. We also washed everything that had gotten dirty and all the bedding, just to make sure the germs were out of the house. Today everyone is doing just fine, so it's really nice. It's great to not be cooped up in the house anymore. It's always frustrating to get sick when the weather is nice, especially when we gone through a long, cold, and rainy period. I hope we get to have some awesome adventures this week.